What I Ate Wednesday #80 – The Adopted Asian

When my husband and I decided to get married, I knew that I would take his name and join his Korean family. It might sound strange to some of you, but I was very excited about this fact. Over the years I’ve come to love his family, and couldn’t wait to officially be a part of it. I’m not-so-secretly dreaming of getting a Hanbok, a traditional Korean dress, for myself. They are so bright and beautiful!

Thanks to my husband and my MIL, I’ve also learned to love Korean cuisine. While most Korean dishes contain some form of meat or fish, you can easily leave them out and make them vegetarian or even vegan. Traditional Korean meals already include lots of different vegetable-based side dishes (banchan), like kimchi, pickled radish or cucumbers, sautéed spinach or zucchini, and many more. And tofu is not just a weird meat replacement but a totally normal ingredient!

While my husband is very open-minded when it comes to food, he definitely prefers traditional Korean dishes, and as I enjoy them, too, we prepare them quite often in our kitchen.

Here’s what I ate last Sunday.

A typical Korean breakfast would be a rather basic rice soup. I pass on that one. This German girl needs some kind of bread in the morning. I’m still working on using up that insane amount of toast in my freezer.

On Friday I had made a big batch of beef broth for the husband, and a smaller batch of mushroom broth for myself. I used dried shiitake mushrooms, carrots, onion, and seaweed (or kelp?) and boiled it all for a few hours. Then I strained the broth and added fresh kelp, carrots, and frozen dumplings, and added a little soy sauce and sesame oil. It was delicious!

My husband offered to make japchae for dinner, and of course I said ‘yes’. This is a very popular picnic dish, made with sweet potato starch noodles and a variety of vegetables. We simply used what we had on hand: sweet red peppers, button mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, and eggs. This dish is so filling! And as those noodles are usually made of 100% sweet potato starch, this dish is even gluten-free. If you omit the eggs, it’s vegan, too! This looks like a small serving, but believe me, japchae is incredibly filling.